Panel recommends ordinance change for land use rezones

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND -- Claiming that it will be better for the community as a whole not to fragment the planning process, the City Council's land use committee recommended the council deal with rezones by amending the city's zoning ordinance.

"The amendment would change the rezone criteria to say that if you don't conform with the current comprehensive plan, you don't get approval," said land use committee member Annette Lancy.

Any amendment to a city ordinance must go through a process that includes review by the Planning Agency and a public hearing.

The land use committee had been expected to recommend repealing an earlier resolution that had deferred any decision on rezone applications until the land use element of the new comprehensive plan is finished.

Lancy said that when the City Council passed the original resolution to defer rezones, they were under the impression that the land use element from the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee would be available to use for rezoning.

"But the land use element is not in a form we could use as a guideline," Lancy told the council at Thursday's meeting.

In light of that, the committee originally was in favor of removing the barrier and allowing the eight existing rezone applications to be processed.

However, Lancy said, she heard from several members of the public and from other council members who had strong objections to dropping the deferral resolution. So she came up with the alternative proposal of amending the current zoning ordinance.

The exception would be rezones relating to light

manufacturing, which would continue to be deferred under the proposal, Lancy said, because CPAC is looking at changing the zoning for light manufacturing in a way that might benefit those applying for those rezones.

Attorney Rob Norrie, representing a developer in that position, said he agreed with Lancy's proposal to defer light manufacturing rezone decisions "at least until July 1993."

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